For Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines, a long wait has ended. For Ivan Rodriguez, there was no wait at all.
Those three players will be part of the Hall of Fame's Class of 2017, taking their place alongside the game's legends in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 30, alongside Commissioner Emeritus Bud Selig and Braves vice chairman John Schuerholz. The news arrived on Wednesday evening, when Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson announced the Baseball Writers' Association of America's results live on MLB Network and MLB.com.
Bagwell (86.2 percent) and Raines (86 percent) both cleared the 75-percent threshold easily, capping candidacies that were anything but a breeze.